Pathfinder - The Wizard Handbook

Last Updated: May 18, 2017

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Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

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Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

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Introduction

The Wizard
sits at the top of the class tier list. With many of the best spells in the game and a
practically limitless list of spells known, you can be and do most anything in the game.
On top of your spells, you get several potent class features and a few bonus feats
which can expand you're already stunning capabilities.

Wizard Class Features

Hit Points: d6 hit points leaves you pretty squishy,
but you have a laundry list of defensive options to put in front of your hit points.

Saves: Your only good save is Will, but because
Wizards only "need" one ability, you can afford to invest some of your ability
score points in Dexterity and Constitution.

Proficiencies: Wizards get very little in the way of
proficiencies, but beyond very early levels you won't need them. A light crossbow
is an excellent backup weapon for a Wizard, but you'll be more reliable relying
on touch attack cantrips. No armor, either, but a mithral buckler and a haramaki
will be plenty alongside your magical defenses.

Skills: Wizards only get 2+ skills, but you get
every knowledge skill as a class skill, and your absurd intelligence will
give you plenty of skill points to throw around. Remember that permanently increasing
your intelligence will give you additional skill points retroactively, which will be nice
when you hit levels 8 and 16.

Arcane Bond (Ex or Sp): You have the option of a familiar or a bonded
item, and both options have their merits.

Familiar: Always a solid choice, the familiar is an
ever-present and ever-useful companion. Familiars can serve as scouts, assassins,
couriers, assistants, and even meat shields in a pinch. Their passive bonuses
to the wizard are roughly equal to a feat, and the provide the benefits of Alertness
when they are adjacent. Effectively, a familiar gives you two feats and a cool pet.
For help with familairs, see my
Practical Guide to
Familiars.

amulet: Jewelry is nice an safe. It doesn't take up
a hand, it's hard to take from you in combat, and it's a good option for enchanting.

ring: The ring is really the gold standard of bonded
items. It's incredibly small, it's easy to hide under a glove or on your person, it's
a very difficult target for sundering, and you can enchant is as per Enchant Ring
without the feat. Magic rings have a lot of great options, but Enchant Ring is rarely
worth the feat, so this gives you some options to save some money.

staff: If you like to use magic Staves, staff might
be a good option. If you only want one magic staff, this will save you a feat. If you
don't enjoy magic staves, you have a big, obvious stick which people can either take
from you or destroy.

wand: Wands are generally only good for low level spells
which you plan to cast frequently, like Cure Light Wounds. Wizards have very few options
which can justify being on a wand, and a wand is very easy to disarm/steal/sunder.

weapon: A wizard should know better. You should
never be using a weapon enough to justify actually carrying it around.

Arcane School: Arcane School really defines how your
wizard will be played, and every option has something great to offer. For information
on specific schools, see the Wizard School Breakdown.

Cantrips: Fantastic and versatile.

Scribe Scroll: Scrolls are great for wizards, and
giving you the feat for free is nice. Use it to prepare scrolls of spells that you
need infrequently so that you can cover all of your bases.

Bonus Feats: 4 extra feats over the course of 20 levels
isn't game-breaking, but the Wizard would still be king if he didn't get any of these.
The addition of
Arcane Discoveries
gives wizards a handful of unique and incredibly powerful options in place of metamagic
and item crafting feats.

Spells: Wizards have the best spell list in the game,
and every new book makes it better. Spells are why you play a Wizard.

Abilities

Intelligence is everything. Saves are a secondary concern.

Str: Dump to 7. Make the Fighter do the lifting.

Dex: Important for saves, and for the occasional touch
attack.

Con: Your hit points are garbage, and Fortitude saves
will be a problem for you.

Int: You get magic, skills, and a bonus to knowledge
skills (which you will have a ton of). Max at start, boost early, boost often.

Wis: You get high Will saves, but with no other real
ability dependencies, bumping Wisdom to at least 12 for additional saves is wise.

Cha: dump to 7 and keep your mouth shut until its
time to throw some spells around or spout some knowledge..

In addition to normal ability considerations, Wizards can also make excellent use
of the aging rules. Being middle-aged gives you a -1 penalty to your physical abilities,
but gets you a pleasant +1 to your mental ability scores. However, this can be a problem
for your already low reflex and fortitude saves.

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

15 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str: 7

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 18

Wis: 14

Cha: 7

Str: 7

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 18

Wis: 11

Cha: 7

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 12

Int: 18

Wis: 12

Cha: 7

Str: 8

Dex: 14

Con: 13

Int: 15

Wis: 12

Cha: 10

Races

Bonuses to Intelligence are key, and other bonuses to spellcasting are nice.

Dwarf: Dwarves are an interesting choice for wizards. Bonus
Constitution and Wisdom make them very durable, a +2 on saves against spells is fantastic,
and Darkvision is always helpful until you cast the spell. However, they don't bring anything
specifically useful to Wizards offensively.

Elf: Bonus intelligence is great, and the bonus to dexterity
and penalty to constitution are roughly equal for our purposes. The +2 bonus to penetrate
spell resistance is equivalent to (and stacks with) Spell Penetration. The other benefits
are highly situational, but certainly welcome. Since you're dumping strength, don't make
the mistake of trying to use a bow.

Gnome: Despite their lack of intelligence bonus, Gnomes
make good Illusionists due to their racial abilities. Being small is also nice.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability bonus goes right into Intelligence,
but that's really all you get. You won't be multiclassing, and skill focus won't really matter
to you. Some of the Half-Elf's alternate racial traits help a bit, but they don't offer
anything particularly helpful for a Wizard. Humans are strictly better.

Half-Orc: Ability bonus to intelligence. If you want to be
a face, that +2 to intimidate might be nice, and Darkvision is still fantastic, but Half-Orcs
don't bring anything else of interest.

Halfling: Bonus to dexterity helps with a bad save, and the +1
racial bonus to all saves is nice, but that's really all we get from Halflings.

Human: What's that you say? A bonus to intelligence? Madness.
The bonus feat is great on literally any character, and the bonus skill points don't hurt
our already impressive pool of skill points.

Traits

Deft Dodger (Combat): +1 to a weak save.

Reactionary (Combat): +2 initiative is huge. Combined
with Improved Initiative you'll go first much more frequently.

Resilient (Combat): +1 to a weak save.

Arcane Temper (Magic): A bonus to initiative and
a bonus to Concentration checks. If you already took a combat trait and didn't
take Reactionary, this is a good option.

Hedge Magician (Magic): 5% may not seem like a lot,
but it adds up very quickly. 5% of the crafting cost of a +1 weapon is enough to
buy a 1st-level potion.

Pragmatic Activator (Magic): Using Intelligence for
Use Magic Device will get you a bigger bonus than magic it a class skill. Wizards
have the best spell list in the game, but you don't get access to some useful options,
especially divine spells.

Resilient Caster (Magic): Too situational.

Shrouded Casting (Magic): Buy a spell component
pouch.

Volatile Conduit (Magic): 1d4 damage once per day
is nothing.

Life of Toil (Social): +1 to a weak save.

Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): Identical to Reactionary.

Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): Identical to Reactionary.

Skills

Appraise (Int): Too situational.

Fly (Dex): One rank is plenty.

Knowledge (Arcana) (Int): Identify constructs, dragons,
and magical beats. Fairly few classes get access to this, so you need to step up here.

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int): Identify aberrations and
oozes. If you spend any time underground or in dungeons, this is worth maxing. Otherwise,
spend one rank and ride your intelligence bonus.

Knowledge (Engineering) (Int): One rank maybe.

Knowledge (Geography) (Int): One rank maybe.

Knowledge (history) (Int): Situational, and very
dependent on the campaign.

Knowledge (Local) (Int): Definitely worth a rank, maybe
more if you don't have a rogue putting ranks in this.

Knowledge (Nature) (Int): Identify animals. Unless you
have a druid or ranger, you may be the only one in the party with this skill.

Knowledge (Nobility) (Int): Situational, and very
dependent on the campaign.

Knowledge (Planes) (Int): Identify outsiders. Outsiders
are diverse and strange, and knowing stuff about them will help your survival greatly.

Knowledge (Religion) (Int): Identify undead. More easily
available than Knowledge (Arcana), but still very useful, especially since your cleric
probably dumped intelligence.

Feats

Wizards certainly aren't feat starved, which leaves a lot of room for
dipping into metamagic, item crafting, and other fun things.
This section does not cover metamagic feats or item creation feats.
For help with metamagic feats, see my
Practical Guide to Metamagic.

Combat Casting: A +4 bonus to your concentration
checks when casting defensively is tempting, but you should not be casting defensively
often enough to justify spending a feat on it. Optimizing Concentration is very
easy, and you can do it with traits and items instead of wasting a feat.

Eschew Materials: Not a lot of spells have material
components which are covered by this feat, and you can buy a spell component pouch
for the rest.

Improved Familiar: If you take a familiar, Improved
Familiar can get you some interesting options. For help with familairs, see my
Practical Guide to
Familiars.

Improved Initiative: Go first, and get control of
the combat early.

Spell Focus: If you picked a specific school, this
is essential. If you're a Universalist, you may want to take this more than
once or not at all.

Greater Spell Focus: Another +1 to your DCs
means you are 5% better at every spell you cast from that school.

Spell Perfection: Fantastically powerful, but it
tends to make you pigeon-hole yourself.

Spell Penetration: Late in the game a lot of monsters
will have Spell Resistance. You will need this feat at some point.

Greater Spell Penetration: Spell Penetration
is likely plenty, but another +2 never hurts if you have a free feat.

Arcane Discoveries

Wizards can take an Arcane Discovery in place of a regular feat or Wizard bonus feat.

Arcane Builder: Crafting high level items takes an
insanely long amount of time. If this is a problem, grab this discovery.

Fast Study: If time to prepare your spells is frequently
a problem, something is very seriously wrong in your campaign.

Feral Speech (Su): Why would a wizard ever want to talk
to an animal when he can summon demons?

Golem Constructor: Why have golems when you can just
Dominate people?

Immortality (Ex): Live forever. Not really a game effect, but
very cool flavor-wise.

Multimorph (Su): Great if you depend on polymorph spells.

Opposition Research: By level 9, spending two slots to
cast an opposition school spell isn't going to cripple you. If you really need a
spell from an opposition school, two spell slots is likely worth less than a feat slot.

Split Slot: Since so many of enchantment spells are
going to be save-or suck, your high level spell slots are likely more productive.
However, don't underestimate the value of low levels buffs.

True Name (Sp): Planar Binding is a good spell, and this
effectively lets you use it at will as a move action.

Staff-Like Wand: If you like wands, this is a worthwhile
discovery. However, you can't get it until level 11 when you are casting 6th level
spells, and wands only go up to 4th level spells. If you lack combat options, this can
really improve the usefulness of caster level-dependant spells like Magic Missile or
Scorching Ray.

Weapons

Stop. Put that down. You're going to hurt yourself.

Dagger: Carry one or two for utility purposes,
but don't plan to pull them out in combat.

Light Crossbow: A decent backup weapon at low
levels when you run low on spells, but you will be more reliable with cantrips
because your attack rolls will be so low.

Armor

If you need AC, you're doing something wrong. Still, it doesn't hurt to
get some cheap protection. Keep in mind that Mage Armor is generally your
best bet when you need AC, but Mage Armor isn't always on.

Armor is presented in the order in which you should acquire it, rather than
alphabetical order.

Haramaki: +1 AC, no arcane spell failure, and
at 5 gp you can afford it at first level.

Permanent Spells

Reduce Person: Reducing your size offers several
useful benefits. Dexterity improves your poor Reflex saves, you get a size bonus
to AC, and you get a net +2 to your ranged touch attacks for great spells like
Disintegrate. The Strength penalty doesn't matter. You could reduce your size to
tiny if your race is normally small, and it still won't have a significant
negative effect. Even if you like to use polymorph spells, this won't handicap
you since most of your polymorph forms aren't humanoid and thus won't be affected
by Reduce Person.

Multiclassing and Prestige Classes

Don't, unless you have a specific concept in mind. If you must multiclass,
try very hard to not give up spellcaster levels. Also keep in mind that classes
which give you spellcasting do not allow you to learn spells for free
when you gain levels.